Earth: A Long Layover on the Bering Land Bridge

In 2013, researchers uncovered the graves of two infants laid to rest about 11,500 years ago outside of what is now Fairbanks, Alaska. Researchers understood that these graves represented some of the earliest human migrants to North America, but were they more closely related to their Asian ancestors, or the modern-day residents of North and South America? Using mitochondrial DNA analysis of the infants, what could we learn about our own human history?

Humans arrived in North America because massive terrestrial glaciers had lowered sea level so much that a land ridge existed between Asia and North America. But when people migrated, where they stayed and for how long before moving southward is mysterious. Now, because the infants’ bodies were well preserved, scientists were able to use genetic analysis to tease out how they relate to modern Americans. Find out what the infants tell us about early migration patterns in EARTH Magazine.

In This Issue of EARTH Magazine

• Scientists have just calculated the mass for the smallest known exoplanet
• A study conducted on how an ant colony will handle the heat of Earth’s changing climate
• Untangling clues about deadly rogue waves in our oceans

All this and more is available at www.earthmagazine.org. Keep up to date with the latest happenings in Earth, energy and environment news with EARTH Magazine at: http://www.earthmagazine.org/